"I am a terrible cash game player!"

Just recently I listened to a poker podcast in which the discussion was creating a blog to help improve your poker play. Thus, I thought it might be a good idea to post a blog of sort here twice a month which will serve two purposes:

1) Will keep me focused on my goals
2) Hopefully will lead to discussion from other members which in turn will improve my play

To give a little background about myself I began playing poker about 2 years ago. It was pre-black friday and when I started I was out of the country. I had planned to make my first deposit when I stepped foot on ground back in the states but the day before I was preparing to leave to come home black friday hit. So that kinda messed up my plans. I then decided to make a small deposit on a site and played pretty well in the tournaments and SNGs but quickly realized I was a terrible cash game player. So the last couple of months I have concentrated strictly on cash games.

As most people do at the beginning of the new year, I made a list of goals to reach in hope to help me improve my game. The goals were:

1) Work on my cash game play
2) Move to another site
3) Learn how to use a HUD
4) Post some hands in the cash game analysis thread
5) Set apart some time each week to look thru hand histories
6) Become more involved in the forum

So far so good. I have moved to another site, started using both PT3 and HEM2 until I decided on HEM, posted hands in the cash game analysis, and have became as involved as I can on the forum when time has allowed. With those now pretty much accomplished I have to soon come up with another list to keep my focus.

After moving to a new site it re-enforced what I had already knew, I was a bad cash game player. I made an initial deposit of $125 and was down $25 after the first 1k hands 4-tabling 4nl 6-max. Over the next ~1700 hands I grinded back to even and then lost another $20 in a matter of 500 hands. After deciding it was my opponents bad play and not my own, I began 2-tabling $10nl 6-max thinking that better players played $10nl and am now showing a profit overall for the last ~1200 hands.

When I began reviewing my hands I realized that it was my play that was the reason for the losses and not the play of my opponents. I was 3-betting too often and too light against the regs in which the tables are full of and was 2 and 3 barreling with air way too often. Since then I have tightened my 3-bet range, and cut down my CBet % and have began to see more success.

Overall I think the following combination has led to me playing better recently:

1) Cutting down from 4 tables to 2
2) Picking better boards to Cbet on
3) Tightening my 3Bet, PFR, and button raises
4) Identifying the regs and adjusting my post-flop play
5) Staying out of the BVB battle

Another area that I have began to experiment with is a 2.5xBB raise from the BTN rather than my normal 4xBB raise from the rest of the positions. After doing some hand history reviews I was finding that while a players overall 3Bet % was around 2.5-3.5% 3Bet percentage from the blinds was a lot higher. This has accomplished a couple things for me. I have been able to call these higher 3Bet %'s with hands that I am willing to play in position while keeping the pot smaller. I am interested to hear what you guys think about this.

As always I am open to any constructive criticism and suggestions.

Good luck

It might be worth posting your positional stats for analysis at some point, I found that helpful. Wait until you get 10-15K hands though to make it meaningful.

What kind of player are you? What are your VPIP, PFR and 3bet stats? Just wondering why you want to tighten your 3bet, PFR and button raises...I am normally trying to increase these things!

Also, I was interested in why you want to stay out of the BvB battle. I have never really thought about this point.

Your 2.5X BB raise on the button idea is interesting but I'm not sure about it tbh. Observant players will notice what you are doing and adjust by 3betting to the amount the normally would if you had 4X BB raised. Lets say its 10NL, you raise to 25c and get 3bet to 75c from someone with a 5% 3bet stat - what range are you calling that 3bet with?

Don't worry about getting fancy; esp. not pre; 3x or 4x is fine. loose passives that call too much will pay you off far more often and the extra 1x bb; adds up, over a 500+ hand session.

I play 95% 6 max games. I am probably considered a nit by most in the 6 max arena. When I first started on the new site my stats ran pretty much like 17.7/13.9 and 3Bet around 6.8% thru around the 1st 1500 hands. Don't think that the VPIP/PFR raise stats were bad but I believe I was 3 betting too much.

Since my play has started to improve my VPIP has come down to 16.7 and PFR slightly to 13.6. So those two stats are beginning to merge which is a good thing. Also, my overall 3bet % is down to 4.5.

Initially I was 3betting the wrong players at the wrong time. Since I have began to choose my 3bets more wisely in better situations against the right people. 3betting a reg UTG or MP from the BTN didn't work out very well for me with the range of hands that I was 3betting with.

Also, my W$SD was terrible. Freaking bad. I have found the fold button sense then and have raised it up to over 50%. Had a short session tonight of 325 hands where my percentages were 26% WTSD and 100% W$SD .

In the BVB battle I found that I was playing too many hands vs. a SB steal attempt. That is an area that I will begin to work on because it just doesn't make sense to fold hands that are +EV in the blinds from a SB fish raise. I have to come up with a range that I am willing to play with comfortably. I was just losing too much money calling raises, the Cbet on the flop and folding the turn when I didnt hit.

The 2.5x BTN raise is something that I am experimenting with. Was watching an instructional video from one of the regs here at CC and he was also experimenting with it. So far it has worked out well. I understand that regs will begin to see the fact that I my normal open is 4x and opening from the BTN at 2.5x and they may make adjustments. So we will see how it goes.

Why are you cutting down your raises on the button? You need to be raising real wide from the button or you're gonna struggle. Being a nit is fine, just dont be a nit when you're in the later positions esp. BTN! Make sure you're stealing a lot anything under 30% is pretty bad.

Opening 2.5x on the button is fine if theres two regs or nits in the blinds, if theres a fish then it would be silly. Try to think why we open 2.5 or 4x etc, all other postions you want to be opening 4x preflop because tables are gonna be so loose.

Post your vpip pfr stats for each position. If it doesnt get a lot looser to later positions you really are playing a weak game

If you prefer to play a relatively tight style, you may want to consider switching to full ring where it's a better fit. Once you're sure you're a winning player as a TAG, you can work on learning how to adapt your game for 6max.

FPaulson wrote an awesome article about him being a 6max nit, 19/16 I think he was, and as far as I remember he was pretty damn successful.

EDIT: A Nit's Apology (why tight is right for me)

A Nit's Apology (why tight is right for me)


lol, guess my post can now be deleted..:-)

Here's the link A Nit's Apology (why tight is right for me)

GL bro keep posting stuff and questions in here

Is there a sticky anywhere that explains how to post stats from HEM? Looking but cannot find one.

What I and others do is just take a screen shot of the stats. You will probably want to edit it tho. You can do this in Paint. If this makes no sense to you, post again and I can explain in more detail.

Okay here are my position stats. MP meh. Looked back over my hands and had AA cracked once in an AI, one QQ AI vs. KK against an aggro on a low dry flop, and a hand where I tripled barreled against a calling station with JJ on a K high board. Of course calling station had KT and wasn't going to lay it down.

Keep in mind that these stats don't encompass the ~1500 hands or so that PT3 was tracking while I was trying it out and I have played a couple of nights without syncing HEM with my laptop. Don't think those few of hands are going to skew the stats that much though.

Anyone see anywhere I can improve on?

Attached Images

Positional Stats.jpg (63.1 KB, 63 views)

is this 6max yeah?

6 max yeap.

steal wider CO and BTN, fwiw I run 25/22 from CO (abit tight) and 32/27 OTB.
loosen up a little bit from everywhere but could be sample size.